Skip to main content
New Participant
June 30, 2016
Answered

How to delete ALL highlighted text in pdf

  • June 30, 2016
  • 5 replies
  • 109849 views

I have a PDF that has over a thousand pages worth of highlighted text. When I open up the comments section, I can see all of the highlighted comments but I cannot select all the comments at once - I can only select the highlighted comments page by page. I am currently running reader DC and I recall in earlier versions being able to select all the comments and deleting them all at once. Can I still do that in reader DC or do I have to go page by page selecting all the comments and deleting them? Any help would be greatly appreciated - thanks in advance!

    Correct answer stefanoo8122271

    Hi, you cannot do this in Adobe, and even if you found a way literally every page will have different way in which you can do it that’ll is not applicable to the next page containing highlights. Save yourself a lot of time and stress. Simply Convert/Export the PDF document to a Word document and within Word remove the highlights and then print the document back to a pdf document. Simple 😊

    5 replies

    New Participant
    September 11, 2025

    After some trial and error, I finally cracked it. Here's the trick that worked:

    Go to Tools > Comments in your PDF editor.

    In the right-hand sidebar, locate the list of comments.

    Click on the text of the first comment labeled "Highlighted Text"—not the page number. This will select the comment and highlight it in a salmon-pink color.

    Scroll down to the last comment you want to delete.

    Hold the Shift key (not Ctrl, as many guides incorrectly suggest).

    Click on the last "Highlighted Text" comment. All comments between the first and last will now be selected and highlighted.

    Press the Delete key to remove them all in one go.

     

     

    try67
    Community Expert
    September 11, 2025

    Basically exactly the same as I posted above, 9 years ago... And you can use Ctrl, but it selects one comment at a time. If you use Shift it will select all the items between the first and the second one you click.

    New Participant
    December 20, 2024

    After many mess ups and hours, I finally figured out how to do it. 

    So first, and to make our lives easier whenever we need to do it again, let's add this tool to our toolbar (this need to be done just once):


    • Under the 3 dots on your Tollbar, click CUSTOMIZE TOOLBAR
    • Under Choose Tools to Add, go all the way down to ADD RICH MEDIA
    • Select the tool SELECT OBJECT and move that to your toolbar using the left arrow/plus sign (if you want you can also reorder your tools on the toolbar using the up and down arrows to make it easier as you wish)
    • SAVE

     

    Now that this is all done, with the document you want to delete the highlights open, you will see on your toolbar the SELECT OBJECT button, click on it and then select all the area where the highlights to be deleted are, once selected right click on any marked highlighted, then EDIT and DELETE. 

     

    Ufffaaaa... I also wish there was an easier way such as the button to Highlight, like Delete Highlight... I hope that helps!

    New Participant
    March 5, 2025

    The problem with this option is that it deletes the text as well. I want to remove only the highlight.   😞

    NelZion
    stefanoo8122271Correct answer
    New Participant
    May 26, 2025

    Hi, you cannot do this in Adobe, and even if you found a way literally every page will have different way in which you can do it that’ll is not applicable to the next page containing highlights. Save yourself a lot of time and stress. Simply Convert/Export the PDF document to a Word document and within Word remove the highlights and then print the document back to a pdf document. Simple 😊

    New Participant
    December 19, 2022

    Here is an option, print the marked up document as a pdf, in the print dialog box at the bottem, you have the option of selecting it with or without the markups and/or stamps.  If you pick the 'document' option it will print it as a pdf without any of your markups.  I save it with a name that denotes it as NOT having any markups.

    New Participant
    August 12, 2024

    this is the DUMBEST thing ever!!!  it should be as simple as a function that says "stop highlighting", delete highlighting, remove highlighting or something like that.  I have tried all of these suggestions in this posting and NONE of them work!!!   Not like Word ..... engineers at Adobe clearly not as good as Microsoft!!

     

    try67
    Community Expert
    August 13, 2024

    Do you see the highlights appear under the Comment panel? If not, then they are a part of the static contents of the file and can't be removed with just the free Reader.

    try67
    Community Expert
    June 30, 2016

    Try pressing Ctrl+A while inside the Comments List. If that doesn't work click the first comment and then scroll down to the bottom of the list, hold down Shift and click the last one. That should select all of the comments in between and you'll be able to delete them all at once.

    New Participant
    August 19, 2021

    👍

    Adorobat
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    June 30, 2016

    Hi arg42330689 ,

    You can go to Comment>in the right pane>hold Ctrl key and select all the pages on which highlighted text is>right click>Delete.

    Let us know if you face any issue.

    Thank You!

    Shivam

    New Participant
    December 3, 2020

    do you know how I can delete all the highlghted text? I want to delete the text that are highlighted, not just the highlight